The invisible weight carried by Black female physicians

Physician
May 19, 2025

When I read Didi’s story, my heart recognized every detail—the subtle disrespect, the overt hostility, the isolation. I felt seen. Not just because I understood her pain but because I lived it, too.

In 1998, I began medical school in Oklahoma. Young, hopeful, and profoundly aware of the honor medicine held, I imagined a career built on compassion and respect. Instead, what greeted me was bias, microaggressions, and disrespect—from seniors, nurses, …

Read more…

A female doctor’s day: exhaustion, sacrifice, and a single moment of joy

Physician
May 19, 2025

When I was unemployed, I applied for countless positions. For months, I have been waiting for a call letter regarding a test or an interview. Now that I have accepted a job at a hospital located far away, I receive call letters in the mail almost every day. This makes me uncomfortable because I know that, being new in my position, I cannot take time off for any test or …

Read more…

Addressing America’s reliance on psychotropic medication [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 18, 2025
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Practicing internist and psychiatrist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article, “How America became overmedicated—and what we can do about it.” He raises concerns about the high rate of psychotropic medication use in …

Read more…

The hidden cost of malpractice: Why doctors are losing control

Physician
May 18, 2025

In ancient times, there were oracles and soothsayers. Risk management was not a science until the 1950s. However, a medical malpractice lawsuit is still a problem in need of a skilled risk manager, not an oracle or a soothsayer.

Today, there are 1 million physicians practicing in the U.S. A doctor’s chance of being sued for medical malpractice is 8.5 percent per year, and the chance that this lawsuit has no …

Read more…

How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

Physician
May 18, 2025

I was scheduled to see a prominent federal judge in my office at 9:00 a.m. The judge requested the first appointment of the day and expected to be seen promptly at 9:00 a.m. I had an emergency providing care for a patient in clot retention. As a result, I was not able to see him at the designated time. At 9:15 a.m., he approached the desk and asked when he …

Read more…

Rediscovering the soul of medicine in the quiet of a Sunday morning

Physician
May 18, 2025

It is early Sunday morning—there’s the rare kind of quiet today that feels borrowed. My daughter is still asleep beside my wife, and the house is hushed in that golden stillness. I find myself flipping through the paper copy of The Rheumatologist’s “Best of 2024” supplement that had arrived earlier in the week—I just wanted a brief escape from medical records (and even more so, from studying).

Half-skimming, half-unwinding, I …

Read more…

An introduction to occupational and environmental medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 17, 2025
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Occupational medicine physician Robert Nathan Clapp discusses his article, “Why you should take a closer look at occupational and environmental medicine.” Addressing the pervasive issue of physician burnout, Robert introduces occupational and …

Read more…

Does silence as a faculty retention strategy in academic medicine and health sciences work?

Conditions
May 17, 2025

Faculty retention remains an ongoing concern for colleges and universities, especially at a time when there is a clear misalignment between the socio-political environment, the mission of higher education, and the values held by most faculty. If you’ve been paying attention, you know: higher education is experiencing waves of faculty disengagement.

However, some institutions respond to crises not with dialogue, but with silence. They avoid confronting faculty concerns …

Read more…

Why personal responsibility is not enough in the fight against nicotine addiction

Conditions
May 17, 2025

In an interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed whether society should bear the cost of health care for individuals whose health problems are largely self-inflicted, citing smoking as an example. He questioned the fairness of providing the same level of care to people who, in his words, “predictably get sick” from behaviors like smoking as to those born with congenital illnesses.

While emphasizing personal responsibility is important, this …

Read more…

How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

Education
May 17, 2025

Shortly after taking the oath of office on January 20, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump issued two Executive Orders: One halted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government, and another mandated the use of “sex,” rather than “gender,” in official federal documents while simultaneously terminating federal funding for gender-affirming care. In the days that followed, institutions …

Read more…

Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 16, 2025
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Journalist and patient advocate Carol Steinberg discusses her article, “Alzheimer’s impact on the young should be an open book.” She argues that while Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) …

Read more…

AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support

Conditions
May 16, 2025

The mental health crisis in America continues to intensify. With therapist shortages, high costs, and long waitlists, there are millions of people without access to therapy. As a cognitive scientist who analyzed therapy transcripts in grad school and now develops AI mental health applications, I’ve observed artificial intelligence emerging as a complementary solution to these accessibility challenges.

Read more…

What prostate cancer taught this physician about being a patient

Conditions
May 16, 2025

I recently wrote about my experience of becoming a patient and how that change in role transformed my perspective as a doctor. But, in that article, I did not share that the reason I had become a patient was that I was undergoing a biopsy for potential prostate cancer.

In preparation for the procedure, the doctor reassured me that the outlook was good and that he did not expect to …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves

Tech
May 16, 2025

I was at a conference of physician executives and physician founders recently, and there were many stimulating conversations. The idea that AI could see us as a threat and eventually destroy us came up in various forms, often as a half-serious joke. Half-serious jokes are serious concerns. Indeed, astrophysicist Martin Rees predicted that humanity had a 50 percent chance of destroying itself this century due to technological advances and threats, …

Read more…

The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

Physician
May 16, 2025

Practicing medicine today is not what most of us envisioned when we chose it as a profession. We still love science. We still love health. We still love helping patients and being healers.

But the practice of medicine has changed—and continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. Navigating this shifting landscape requires a new mindset—one rooted in adaptability, self-awareness, and resilience. The way we were trained to practice medicine twenty or …

Read more…

Why great patient outcomes don’t protect female doctors from burnout [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 15, 2025
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Pediatrician and holistic wellness expert Noemi Adame discusses her article, “Having a female doctor is better for your health, but not for hers.” She highlights research indicating patients often experience better outcomes—including …

Read more…

Why ADHD in women is finally getting the attention it deserves

Conditions
May 15, 2025

More women than ever before are receiving ADHD diagnoses. From 2020 to 2022, the percentage of adult women with a new diagnosis nearly doubled, and clinicians continue to encounter higher rates of women seeking assessments.

It’s reassuring that, after decades of association with rambunctious little boys, ADHD is finally being acknowledged as a condition that can affect anyone, regardless of age or …

Read more…

How a $75 million jet brought down America’s boldest doctor

Physician
May 15, 2025

This article is satire.

Dr. Donovan Trumble was not your average internist.

In fact, if you asked him, he wasn’t your average anything.

He called himself “the most successful physician-researcher in America—maybe ever,” and once declared during grand rounds, “If Sir William Osler were alive today, he’d be my opening act.”

To the faculty at the Ivy League medical school where Trumble had once chaired the Department of Clinical Egotism (officially “Translational Medicine,” but …

Read more…

Why ruling out sepsis in emergency departments can be lifesaving

Conditions
May 15, 2025

It’s a common scenario in the emergency department (ED). Peak cold and flu season brings in patients complaining of fever and chills, with increased heart rates and elevated white blood cell counts. Too many patients, not enough beds. As emergency medicine providers, we have to make quick, challenging decisions at triage, prioritizing the sickest patients based on their vitals and symptoms and getting them on the right care pathway.

Read more…

The hidden cost of delaying back surgery

Conditions
May 15, 2025

Spinal surgery patients frequently present to me after multiple years of managing their chronic back pain through physical therapy, injections, medications, and alternative treatment methods. Patients arrive at my office already worn out physically and emotionally drained from frustration about their chronic condition. What increases my concern is that irreversible damage has already resulted in many cases, which could have been reduced or prevented through earlier surgical treatment.

I recommend starting …

Read more…

610
pages